Remapped my Zed

[R.E92]

So add some constructive assistance then

Techathy has already said he's using MHD. Which is currently the default tuning option for N54 engines.

It's not like this is the first mention either. I've been trying to explain the benefits to people for months but people still keep asking the same questions and ending up putting some junk piggyback in their car or going to a backstreet canned map reseller. Posting charts that were last updated in 2013 doesn't help anyone, it may even cause people to make choices they later regret.


Techathy. I'm surprised you are seeing an increase in power in sport mode. That's not normal behaviour with tunes. It's possible to implement by limiting the maximum throttle position in certain modes but that's not something I've seen anyone bother with and certainly not a feature of the built-in maps.
If you are using a MHD built-in map then the sport button will do nothing more than stiffen up the chassis and steering as I believe the throttle mapping is identical between tuned modes and there is no individual load target table in the ECU for different modes.

Glad to see you are finding the power manageable. I was getting sick of reading threads about people claiming the stock car had more power than the chassis could manage. Just needs some nice wide sticky tires and the thing really hooks

Regards to spitting flames; I didn't even think that was possible on cars with cats still in place. Certainly not advised! Did you set the exhaust aggression in MHD to extreme on overrun?

 

[Twin Turbo]

R.92

Thanks for the contribution - however piggy back systems have value if the car is under warranty

 

[R.E92]

R.92

Thanks for the contribution - however piggy back systems have value if the car is under warranty

Modern cars have alarms latched in the ECU to catch out things like piggyback units.

The JB4 has an auto-clear function where it erases those codes, but only from the DME i think.

ECU tunes need no such frigs since they simply disable the codes. It's also a load easier to flash a car back to stock than it is to remove the JB4 from the car.

MHD has a 'flash back to stock' function which returns your ECU to the OEM map and clears any existing codes from other non-DME modules.

 

[stuartinzg]

R.92

Thanks for the contribution - however piggy back systems have value if the car is under warranty

You really should listen to him as he knows what he's talking about when it comes to the N54

 

[stuartinzg]

Much nicer throttle fidelity with 25% throttle equalling 25% of maximal acceleration. Not only that but it feels like a slightly mushy cable throttled car in response. I'm running richer on idle/closed loop which has removed almost all of the 1st & 2nd gear slow speed surging/hunting & makes the idle buttery smooth. Open throttle acceleration is just epic, especially in sport(+) mode and much more controllable.

I forgot to do a calibration & reference run at the beginning of my session so I’ve not got an accurate measure of exactly what the car did. But based in its previous 428Nm at the wheels I have 482Nm/237kW in comfort & 519Nm/261kW in sport.
Z4-remapped.jpg

I need this in my life, now - I can't wait until the LSD
Is this MHD stage 1 with or without FMIC?
Did you get the battery charger?

Anything else to share before I commit?

 

[Twin Turbo]

I admit my knowledge of the N54 is out of date - just a basic appreciation as I had an 335i.

My knowledge is more current on the N20 platform.

 

[Maniac]

Can everyone stop talking about this please... Given my bad experience and a firm promise to myself I'd not try this again, all this talk is too tempting!

 

[techathy]

Techathy. I'm surprised you are seeing an increase in power in sport mode. That's not normal behaviour with tunes. It's possible to implement by limiting the maximum throttle position in certain modes but that's not something I've seen anyone bother with and certainly not a feature of the built-in maps.
If you are using a MHD built-in map then the sport button will do nothing more than stiffen up the chassis and steering as I believe the throttle mapping is identical between tuned modes and there is no individual load target table in the ECU for different modes.

Yeah, stock maps would have given the same power. However, this was a custom map we spent 4-5 hours on. One of my requirements was instant access to a low quality fuel map, the easiest way to do that was use the comfort setting, considering I rarely use comfort for anything other than constant speed cruising on trunk roads.

Glad to see you are finding the power manageable. I was getting sick of reading threads about people claiming the stock car had more power than the chassis could manage. Just needs some nice wide sticky tires and the thing really hooks

The Z4 doesn't have an all singing and all dancing AWD system, also its traction control is very much a 'you messed up' system rather than the 'let me do that for you'. So no arcade game driving, but with smooth hands & feet the E89 has a lot of grip to offer.

Regards to spitting flames; I didn't even think that was possible on cars with cats still in place. Certainly not advised! Did you set the exhaust aggression in MHD to extreme on overrun?

Yes it's possible but it needs vaporised fuel and a lack of oxygen before the cats and then being exposed to air later down the exhaust system, basically you need to go from bang on perfect fuelling to oh-so-slightly rich. My theory is the faster change of sport/sport manual means that with the faster engine rpm drop it goes into that oh-so-slightly rich zone required to get a tiny amount of vaporised fuel through the cats. It's not spitting flames on over-run or down shifts.

stuartinzg, The map is custom to my car & the engine is factory except for the map. The two performance tuning things I'm likely to add is an LSD and an uprated IC. I just put a battery conditioner on my car 2 days before and let it fully trickle charge. The mapping was done with just battery power.

 

[Rathean]

Can everyone stop talking about this please... Given my bad experience and a firm promise to myself I'd not try this again, all this talk is too tempting!

Bad experience with a remap

 

[techathy]

Remaps can go wrong & that means problems.

 

[stuartinzg]

stuartinzg, The map is custom to my car & the engine is factory except for the map. The two performance tuning things I'm likely to add is an LSD and an uprated IC. I just put a battery conditioner on my car 2 days before and let it fully trickle charge. The mapping was done with just battery power.

Please can you PM me the details and who I need to contact? I would love the same service (was it Wedge?).
Especially the power difference on comfort vs. sport - this is perfect

The flames excite me

 

[R.E92]

stuartinzg, The map is custom to my car & the engine is factory except for the map. The two performance tuning things I'm likely to add is an LSD and an uprated IC. I just put a battery conditioner on my car 2 days before and let it fully trickle charge. The mapping was done with just battery power.

Please can you PM me the details and who I need to contact? I would love the same service (was it Wedge?).
Especially the power difference on comfort vs. sport - this is perfect

The flames excite me

Think the quotes have got confused

My advice would be to contact BuraQ over at E90post. Wedge is great also but BuraQ specialises in DCT equipped cars.

I'm also interested in who Techathy used. He said it was dyno tuned so much be a UK based tuner using MHD.
Techathy; Do you have any log data for you tune? I upload all mine to Datazap.me to interrogate.

 

[stuartinzg]

Oops, yes - @Techathy please give us the details. I'm desperate!

 

[techathy]

I was originally going for a rolling road map but quickly found none of the tuners could do what I wanted without a lot of money. As having extensive mapping experience mapping engines from scratch, when I mean scratch read that as starting by making my own engine loom to hookup to ECU a 0 filled ECU. I simply hired the rolling road & did it my self. I did spend a lot of time going through various maps.

No I'm NOT doing anything to someone else's car, I was barely able to get enough confidence to map my own car.

 

[R.E92]

I was originally going for a rolling road map but quickly found none of the tuners could do what I wanted without a lot of money. As having extensive mapping experience mapping engines from scratch, when I mean scratch read that as starting by making my own engine loom to hookup to ECU a 0 filled ECU. I simply hired the rolling road & did it my self. I did spend a lot of time going through various maps.

No I'm NOT doing anything to someone else's car, I was barely able to get enough confidence to map my own car.

Nice work, always better doing it yourself as you really appreciate the subtle changes.

I noticed you were trying to smooth out the idle. Try these VANOS adjustments. My idle is so much smoother than the stock map now, I think the stock car runs too much EGR at idle.


One thing most publicly available N54 maps miss out is correct change to the "boost request offset %" table. If you are targeting under 180 load then you are fine using the stock 35is values. Above that you get timing drops when abruptly going WOT below 3k rpm. If you use the values from the free backend maps then you end up getting dangerously lean AFRs during spool mode (fuel mode 20).

 

[stuartinzg]

I was originally going for a rolling road map but quickly found none of the tuners could do what I wanted without a lot of money. As having extensive mapping experience mapping engines from scratch, when I mean scratch read that as starting by making my own engine loom to hookup to ECU a 0 filled ECU. I simply hired the rolling road & did it my self. I did spend a lot of time going through various maps.

No I'm NOT doing anything to someone else's car, I was barely able to get enough confidence to map my own car.

Crap What other options do I have?

 

[R.E92]

I was originally going for a rolling road map but quickly found none of the tuners could do what I wanted without a lot of money. As having extensive mapping experience mapping engines from scratch, when I mean scratch read that as starting by making my own engine loom to hookup to ECU a 0 filled ECU. I simply hired the rolling road & did it my self. I did spend a lot of time going through various maps.

No I'm NOT doing anything to someone else's car, I was barely able to get enough confidence to map my own car.

Crap What other options do I have?

Use a tuner without a rolling road!

Data logs allow you to street tune the car which in some ways is better than a dyno since you are loading up the engine under real world conditions and have realistic airflow across the intercooler and engine bay.

The phrase for such a tune is "eTuning". That's what tuners like BuraQ and Wedge provide.

Rolling roads are great for R&D on map changes but once you've done that a simple data log is all you need to customise a map to a car.

 

[stuartinzg]

I already spoke to Wedge so either him or BuraQ sounds like the next step then.

Thanks guys,

I really want the different power based on comfort, sport, sport+, so i can run 95,98,100 octane and keep the car on lower boost until I really want it. For me this is a real win!

 

[R.E92]

I already spoke to Wedge so either him or BuraQ sounds like the next step then.

Thanks guys,

I really want the different power based on comfort, sport, sport+, so i can run 95,98,100 octane and keep the car on lower boost until I really want it. For me this is a real win!

The problem with that is that the standard throttle mapping or "high" as it's called in the DME is only used when the car is in normal mode and the shifter is in D.
If you go into sport manual mode then you are using the sport "low" table which will give you full power.

Wedge and BuraQ will both be able to do that for you, it's a simple enough mod to make.

 

[stuartinzg]

I already spoke to Wedge so either him or BuraQ sounds like the next step then.

Thanks guys,

I really want the different power based on comfort, sport, sport+, so i can run 95,98,100 octane and keep the car on lower boost until I really want it. For me this is a real win!

The problem with that is that the standard throttle mapping or "high" as it's called in the DME is only used when the car is in normal mode and the shifter is in D.
If you go into sport manual mode then you are using the sport "low" table which will give you full power.

Wedge and BuraQ will both be able to do that for you, it's a simple enough mod to make.

Ok, although I'm not really sure what that means ... is there a downside to switching power based on the "mode" ?